


Ab Extra, Salus: Twenty-Four Lives

by afterandalasia



Series: Disney Hunger Games [4]
Category: Disney - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Child Death, Drabble Collection, Dystopia, Gen, Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-09 00:26:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 2,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7779565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afterandalasia/pseuds/afterandalasia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twenty-four names are drawn from the Reaping Ball for the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games, and none of them will be the same again.</p><p> </p><p>(One drabble for each tribute.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fa Mulan | Maleficent

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is super-late, but I do still love this setting and this universe. Contains spoilers for _Ab Extra, Salus_.
> 
> The names of the tributes from each district will be made the title of the chapter.

Mulan remembers her parents arguing over Training. She must have been five, or six, and Ping was asleep but she was sneaking down for a glass of water.

“They’re _legacies_ , Li,” her father had said. It was the first time she had ever heard the word. “Of course they’ll be reaped. Both of them. And nobody will volunteer for them.”

Her mother was crying. Mulan hugged her arms around herself, feeling sick. She already knew what _legacy_ and _volunteer_ meant.

Her father sighed. “Training is the best chance they have.”

There and then, Mulan promised she would protect her brother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her name had not always been Maleficent. She chose it, the same way she chose the colour of her hair, her dress, the shade of her lipstick. She constructed the persona that she wanted, ready to offer up to the Capitol as a Volunteer. Fake breasts, fake lips, fake eyelashes for the camera.

Before she Reaping came, she and Diablo fucked, just once. They knew what waited for one of them on the other side, and had trained enough to trust each other.

Her eighteenth birthday was a formality. She had felt like an adult for more than long enough.


	2. Lyle Rourke | Helga Sinclair

The Games came, the Games went, every year. Punishment and opportunity. Rourke set his eyes on the opportunity and smiled grimly, all the way through.

Push-ups. Running. Weights. Weapons. Train, train, be ready to take that opportunity. Build up your muscles and sharpen your brain.

He wasn’t a fool. He knew that the Games were cruel and brutal, that they made killers of almost anyone who even tried to survive.

There were no Victors who had not killed.

But the Games could be a step, as well. A price for a long reward.

Rourke knew power when he saw it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a fucked-up world, Helga has no delusions about that. An orphan who fought like a demon, taken in and trained and unleashed as a walking weapon.

Illusions are a burden. Reality is cold and sharp.

The beauty spot on her cheek is like a mark, the darkness of her mind showing on her skin. When she was a child, she tried to scrub it off. Now she darkens it with make-up, or charred wood when there is no money for makeup.

Her body is a weapon, one of few that women have and men do not.

She sees everything.


	3. Jim Hawkins | Amelia

When his name is drawn, Jim knows that he should feel sad. Scared. But there’s nothing there for a while, until he is on the train and anger bubbles up and bursts out of him in jets.

His mother cried. There had been no tears in him to fall.

He hates the Capitol. Hates the scientists that come from the Capitol to monitor the factories, even if they don’t notice Jim any more than they see the floor that he cleans.

The Capitol is all bright lights, but Jim can smell the rot beneath. Hopefully it will be burnt clean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They said that she had a good future ahead of her. Every teacher Amelia ever had said that she was bright, that she had a knack for machines.

The Capitol takes it from her in one slip of paper.

She’s never really hated before. Annoyance, sure, even anger. But she’s never felt _hatred_ like this, narrowing her eyes at the screens and giving the cameras her most venomous glare.

She will not make herself into what they want. She asks Snow White why she asks such fatuous questions, and tears a dummy apart in training.

It is all for nothing.


	4. Eric | Kida Nedakh

District Four training isn’t all weapons and edge. They learn to survive, first and foremost, hunt and fish and lay traps, and that is what Eric is good at. He did not even fear the fire they used to test if he was ready.

Others might be angry, to be so overshadowed by Kida Nedakh, but Eric does not mind. He, like many from District Four, was never flashy anyway.

He goes through the training solidly and calmly, shows just enough skills and holds just enough back. He knows how to do this. To live.

He never sees Ping’s blade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Capitol will fall, and be washed away.

Kida knows that, most likely, she will die. That has been the point of her entering the Games; she just has to make it there, to stand before them and utter her words.

 _Ab extra, salus_.

The Capitol has made it so they cannot stand alone. Instead, they will stand together.

She watches the others and pities them and hates the Capitol when they fight. She will keep them alive, as many as she can.

The Capitol makes monsters for the Games. Now they will see what they have made of her.


	5. Hercules | Megara

He wanted to be a sportsman, a professional like the television showed sometimes. Instead, Hercules ended up here.

He didn’t understand. They wanted him to kill, didn’t they? It was part of the Games.

When he put the spear through the girl from District Eleven, it was like something in his chest died. He took her sword, because he needed a sword, and could not look at her dying face.

Later, the sword mutated his reflection, and he vomited until he tasted blood.

It was the boy from District One who let him go. His eyes were dead as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What was she supposed to do in a fight? Megara and her boyfriend had promised that if one was reaped, the other would volunteer with them.

He lied.

She didn’t blame really him.

Her stylist was a man named Hades with blue spiked hair. He put his hands on Megara’s body and said that he knew people who could give money to her cause.

It was clear enough what he wanted in return.

“Get lost,” she sneered. _I won’t be taken. I am not yours_.

She felt the first blow of the first boy from six. But not the second.


	6. Shan Yu | Harabusa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Harabusa is the name of the falcon from _Mulan_. In the original _Ab Extra, Salus_ , the District Six female tribute was Vanessa, but Harabusa fit better in role and theme.

The Capitol is rich and fat and Shan Yu burns with envy at the sight of it. He wants that life, and killing is not that much of a price to pay for it.

The makeover gives him yellow eyes, and he likes them. The furs, he isn’t so sure about.

He wonders if he’s supposed to feel something when he kills the District Five girl. But it’s just a physical act. The Careers accept him, and he smiles like a shark.

He knows they aren’t as trusting as they appear. That would be foolish.

Instead, it will be interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transport lines run through the woods, and Harabusa has lived in flight along them. She has keen eyes and sharp wits, and is not afraid to make talons of a knife.

She follows her District partner to the Careers, knowing strength when she sees it. She doesn’t have a plan, just her wits and her talon-knives, and she knows it’s a weakness but hopes that being aware of it will help.

The boy from District One wounds her. _He was supposed to be part of this pack_. She wonders if she took his place, a pale replacement.

It doesn’t matter.


	7. Quasimodo | Esmeralda

Quasimodo. Half-formed. He grows up with the mockery, and only expects more of it from the Games.

Esmeralda, his district partner, is the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen, and the other tributes are kinder than he expected. He knows they are expected to fight, but it’s hard to believe that most of them will.

He does not think he can. He knows his strength, but could not imagine using it in anger. Until he sees the unthinkable, the killing of a child even compared to him, and the world mists red.

Perhaps there is a monster in them all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Games are another injustice, another cruelty that Esmeralda has grown to hate with the hunger and the hard work. Their female mentor is a frightened girl herself, while the man swears at the screen and storms away.

The Games is supposed to part them. Esmeralda takes vicious delight in accepting Kida’s offer of an alliance, one which Kida promises is for survival and not for fighting. It is everything they are not supposed to be.

She can run, and fight, but those are only to be expected. The desire that burns in her is to be _more_ than that.


	8. Aladdin | Jasmine

The Capitol calls them the Hunger Games, but they’ve probably never even known Hunger. Aladdin has: hunger and thirst and pain, often all at once. After school he trudges to the factory, to make clothes for the Capitol with patches on his knees.

You’re supposed to go off on your own. That’s what they always do, the only way that they know how to survive. But he promises Jasmine, that they’ll run together.

For a moment, he feels like he’s worth something, dressed well for once. But it fades to hollowness.

He has just enough time to see Maleficent’s knives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She didn’t ask to be chosen. But if they choose her, she will do what she has to, in order to survive. Jasmine’s father has tried to protect her from the world, but she has seen too much of its ugliness already.

Her hands fall on a weapon before anything else, amid the supplies; a heavy metal ball on a chain. Then one of the others is on her and all she can think of is to _fight_. She swings, and feels as much as hears the impact.

When the Careers come for her, she tries to fight.

But falls.


	9. Kocoum | Pocahontas

From the moment that Pocahontas’s name is drawn, Kocoum is determined to help her, even if it is all that he can do. Because to help her would be the right and the just thing, and even if he does not let it show it breaks his heart when her name is called.

It is her idea, the leap, but she knows that it will need his help. A trick on the Gamemakers, she says.

He agrees, knowing he or both will be made to pay for it.

He launches her towards the Cornucopia, seconds early, and wishes her luck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She’s old enough to be smart, to know that all that she has is trickery. A leap ahead of the explosive plate; taking shelter beneath a camouflaging sheet. Pocahontas knows she cannot fight the bigger tributes, but perhaps she can survive them.

The Gamemakers must be survived as well: explosives, the burning rain, the killing fog. She hides from them in the roof of the stadium, where only she should be light enough to go.

She does not expect Rourke, and sees him too late, unable to dodge the crossbow bolt. It _burns_.

Then he grabs her, and everything ends.


	10. Woody Pride | Jessie

Woody grows up on the wide ranges, with the sturdy cattle that have been modified by District Three to bear the colder northern weather. District Ten makes the people sturdy, too, and you know you have to trust your team.

He’s never met Jessie before, but they clasp hands on the train and agree to work with each other. Grab what they can from the Cornucopia and leave. They know how to make a fire, manage food between them, and talk about what it was like to ride, and feel the air, and be free.

It was better than here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She will never see Emily again, and she hates it.

Jessie ain’t a fool, she knows that those who go to the games from District Ten don’t come back. She knows that the best she can do is go down swinging, and go down true. That’s why she befriends and trusts Woody immediately.

But Emily, who should have been there, should have at least said goodbye, does not even come to visit her when she is reaped.

She is angry, but cannot hate Emily, still loves her too much. Even after one final betrayal.

At least she doesn’t die alone.


	11. Tarzan | Rapunzel

He does not mean to end up here. He was happiest among the trees, such an adept climber that he never stumbled, never missed a handhold, never fell.

Then his name is called.

The Capitol coos over his muscles and admires his strength; he wants to recoil from them. In the Arena, he climbs and climbs, hoping that none will be able to follow him, and has to fight the panging desire to help with the struggle in the water.

The rain is not rain. It burns his skin, his flesh, and he howls but the Capitol has never cared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All that she knows that might help is plants, and in this Arena there are not even any of them. Rapunzel scrapes her knuckles bloody turning stones in search of plants that should be in cracks and crevices but are completely and artificially gone.

She hugs her knees to her chest in the night, shivering from fear, not cold.

Desperate for water, she dares to drink, and feels the knock of the spear, sees it, before she feels the pain.

She begs the boy from District One to end it. Even if it was him, she knows it wasn’t _him_.


	12. Milo Thatch | Cinderella

In seventy-four years, only one person has come back two District Twelve.

Kida is a maelstrom, and Milo is only caught up in her. She has plans she shares, and deeper plans still, and fire in her eyes and the sea in her voice.

He is shot, and keeps fighting. He feels the thud of an explosion, a knife in his arm to cut the tracker away, and suddenly Kida says the impossible.

They are leaving the Games.

It is unreal and giddying and still a battle as they re-enter the world, but a battle is better than a slaughterhouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her stepsisters fight over what dresses to wear to the Reaping, and mock Cinderella for the tesserae she had been forced to take.

When she is reaped, Drizella ignores her; some schoolfriends and her teacher say goodbye. Anastasia creeps in almost at the end, with a terrible hat jammed over her red hair. Her eyes are red.

“I’m sorry,” she says, “for everything.”

She pushes a little flower brooch into Cinderella’s hand, and flees before Cinderella can speak. Cinderella wonders what other words went unsaid, and hopes that one day she will find out.

But she will not be afraid.


End file.
